It was a classic e-bike-versus-pedal- bike moment. The guy on the road bike was ahead by a few blocks, but lo andbehold, by the time he reached the nextintersection, he had fallen behind oure-bike. As he stopped next to us at thered light, he not only looked exasperatedbut downright befuddled. If we could readhis mind, he was probably asking himself,“How could some overweight, dorky-look-ing guy on that city bike catch and passme on my carbon wonder bike?!”Being the honest guys that we are, wecouldn’t let the guy torture himself any lon-ger. “You know that it’s a cheater, right?”When our admission didn’t seem to reg-ister, we went the extra distance, “It’s anelectric bike.” Mystery solved.

Welcome to the Specialized Turbo—no
doubt, one of the best-looking electric
bikes on the market today.

FROM THE BEGINNING

As most people in the bike industry
know, Specialized is not a company that
does anything with less than a full-on
effort. And yes, it’s definitely rare that
they’re found sitting on the sidelines while
any two-wheel trend emerges, but that’s
just what they did with the e-bike market. Though e-bike sales in Europe had
been in full swing for almost a decade,
Specialized thought it best to wait and see
what kind of consumer and technology
trends emerged. Knowing that Europe was
driving the direction of e-bike technology and usage, in 2010, Specialized sent
one American engineer packing to join a
Turbo-dedicated team in Switzerland. After
two years spent penciling frame designs
and studying battery technology, the first
iteration of their fast-looking Turbo hit
European shores last year.

In the spring of 2013, the Turbo finally
arrived in America where it became an
immediate talking point in the still-nascent
domestic e-bike market. Available in four
sizes, the Turbo made waves as much for
its styling as its $6000 asking price.

THE DETAILS

For their entry into the market,Specialized sought to deliver a bike thatwas made up of as much proprietarydesign as possible. As lead engineerAmber Lucas commented, “We’re bikefreaks at Specialized, and it was importantthat we created a bike that we would andcould be passionate about. When the firstTurbo arrived and it ended up winning oneof our lunch rides, well, we knew we had abike worthy of being a Specialized.”The Turbo begins life with a stout,curvaceous aluminum frame that rides on700c wheels mounted with fat, 45c, slicktires. As is obvious from looking at all thebikes in this magazine, bike makers arechoosing one of two places to mount theirmotor: in the rear hub or in the bottombracket. Given the intended (road) use ofthe Turbo, Specialized opted for the for-mer, because rear hub weight is not anissue on pavement and is also less impact-ful on the drivetrain. The motor has a 250-watt nominal rating (the power that can besustained), with an allowance for spikesof up to 700 watts. To maintain its legallyrecognized status as a bicycle, there is nothrottle on the Turbo; all forward move-ment is a result of your legs turning circles.Aiding in this department is the SRAM XOrear derailleur and 11-speed gear clustermated to a single 48 tooth chainring.

In their typical attention to detail, the
Turbo has something “cool” to find at
every turn. The carbon fork with a 15mm
thru-axle was a nice touch, as is the
high-end headlight, which is standard
equipment. Giving some credence to the
retail price would be the high-end Magura
hydraulic disc brakes with nicely sculpted
carbon brake levers.

THE RIDE

The first thing we noticed about the
Turbo is that, as the name implies, it is
fast. Really fast. Okay, not freeway-speed
fast, but fast enough that riding in the
Turbo mode makes pedaling along at 28

As the name implies,this one is all about speed...and style{ BIKE TEST }SPECIALIZEDTURBO